Help with putting chemistry concepts into words

I've been working with my students on writing and naming ionic compounds.  Everything seemed to going OK, until I gave them what I thought would be a very easy quiz.  I thought wrong.  I asked them questions that they had to write out answers in actual English words. Students who didn't have any problem writing a formula, couldn't give a written explanation of what they did or why.  One of the questions was simply "Ionic compounds are neutral, even though they are made of charged particles.  Explain how a compound can become neutral".  Yikes!  You would have thought that I had asked them to explain advanced particle physics! How can I help my students move from just following a set of steps to understanding and communicating what they're doing?  Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!



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